Kiki and Jacques: A Refugee Story - Hardcover

Ross, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823434273 ISBN 13: 9780823434275

Publisher: Holiday House, 2015

Synopsis

Can Kiki and Jacques be friends—or are they just too different?

Life could be better for twelve-year-old Jacques. His mother just died, his father is jobless, and his grandmother’s bridal store is on the verge of closing. At least he can look forward to the soccer season—after all, he’s a shoo-in for captain. But the arrival of Somali refugees shakes up nearly everything in his French-American Maine town, even soccer.

Jacques isn’t the only star anymore—Mohamed is just as good as him, maybe better. School, church, sports . . . everything suddenly seems different. So Jacques is surprised to find himself becoming friends with Kiki, a smart, kind, and strong-minded Somali Muslim girl with a mysterious scar.

Can kids as seemingly different as Jacques and Kiki be friends? Kiki and Jacques offers a realistic and heartwarming portrait of a town learning to embrace its changing face.

A Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year

About this title

About the Author

Susan Ross is an author and writing teacher who divides her time between Connecticut and Maine. Susan grew up in an immigrant family in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, and worked with refugee Somali teenagers in writing Kiki and Jacques’ realistic portrayal of the experience of New Mainers in her childhood home.

From School Library Journal

Gr 3–5—Jacques has been bullied by an older boy for years, and lately the older boy has been telling Jacques to do illegal things. Jacques has been trying to avoid the older boy and has resisted him until now. But new pressures come down on the 12-year-old: Jacques's grandmother is having money troubles and may lose her bridal shop, and his father has been drinking more and was fired from his job. When Kiki and her family, refugees from Somalia, arrive in the small Maine town, Jacques starts to look outside himself. He soon becomes friends with Kiki, but her brother, a star soccer player, doesn't approve. Jacques, who had hopes of being the captain of the soccer team, now has to deal with Mohamed, who is a much better player and doesn't seem to like him. Meanwhile, a kind of love triangle develops among Jacques, Kiki, and another local girl. Readers will come away with a sense of cultural differences between the American residents of Jacques's French-speaking town and Kiki's Somali family. Unfortunately, there are too many subplots packed into this slim novel, which lend the overall work a rushed and incomplete feel. The ending is happy, though predictable and a bit too neat. VERDICT An additional purchase for larger collections.—Terry Ann Lawler, Burton Barr Library, Phoenix, AZ

Edition details

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0823434273
• ISBN 13: 9780823434275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128